“The initiative is intended to ensure that every South African has access to sufficient and nutritious food aimed at ending hunger in accordance with the NDP vision 2030 statement,” said the department on Tuesday.
Fetsa Tlala will be financed through, amongst others, the Comprehensive Agriculture Support Programme (CASP). Allocations to provinces will be dedicated to food production, either crop or livestock production. More inclination, however, is towards the production of staple food such as maize, beans, wheat, sunflower, ground nuts and potatoes.
CASP is the Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries’ premier support programme and is funded through the Division of Revenue Act (DORA).
The department said through Fetsa Tlala, one million hectares of productive agricultural land which has been lying fallow is targeted for production over a period of five years.
The funds will be used for land preparation, procurement of inputs, harvesting, storage of products, local processing as well as marketing.

President Jacob Zuma and Minister of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries Tina Joemat-Pettersson will on Thursday launch Fetsa Tlala – an initiative aimed at improving household food security and stimulating sustainable job creation in the poorest districts of the country The Fetsa Tlala Food Production Initiative to be launched in the Northern Cape will ensure that underutilised agricultural land is put under production to increase local access to food